End of free public preview for IP address pools - Elastic IP Address

Valued Alibaba Cloud users, the free public preview for IP address pools of Elastic IP Address (EIP) will end and you will be charged a public IP retention fee for each IPv4 address starting 10:00:00 (UTC+8) on June 5, 2024. The unit price is USD 0.007/hour/IP address. A public IP retention fee will be charged only once for each IPv4 address. You are not charged an EIP configuration fee when you allocate IPv4 addresses from IP address pools to EIPs.

Important

If you want to continue to use IP address pools, no further action is required. Billing of IP address pools will start at 10:00:00 (UTC+8) on June 5, 2024. For more information, see Billing.
If you no longer use IP address pools, we recommend that you delete the CIDR blocks of IP address pools to avoid unexpected costs. For more information, see Delete a CIDR block from an IP address pool.

Procedure

Apply for the permissions to use the IP address pool.
To apply for the permissions, contact your account manager.
Enable the IP address pool feature.
Before you can use the IP address pool feature, you must enable it.
- If you use the IP address pool feature for the first time after 10:00:00 (UTC+8), June 5, 2024, you must enable the IP address pool feature on the product page as prompted.
- If you have used the IP address pool feature before 10:00:00 (UTC+8), June 5, 2024, you can skip this step.
Create and use an IP address pool.
You can create an IP address pool, add CIDR blocks to the IP address pool, and allocate elastic IP addresses (EIPs) from the IP address pool. For more information, see Create and manage an IP address pool.
Optional. Request a quota increase.
The following rules apply to the quota on IP address pools. To use more IP addresses, request a quota increase. For more information, see Request a quota increase. To use more IP address pools, contact your account manager.
- If you use the IP address pool feature for the first time after 10:00:00 (UTC+8), June 5, 2024: You can create at most 16 IP address pools with each Alibaba Cloud account in each region. Each IP address pool supports at most 256 IP addresses.
- If you have used the IP address pool feature before 10:00:00 (UTC+8), June 5, 2024:
  - If the maximum number of IP addresses in a region is less than or equal to 256, the region supports at most 256 IP addresses.
  - If the maximum number of IP addresses in a region is greater than 256, the Quota Management page displays the maximum number of supported IP addresses in the region.
Note
If an IP address in an IP address pool is assigned as an EIP, it consumes the EIP quota. Otherwise, it does not consume the EIP quota. You can check the EIP quota on the Quota Center page.

Billing

Item	Description
Pricing	After you add a CIDR block to an IP address pool, you are charged a public IP retention fee for each IP address within the CIDR block regardless of whether the IP addresses are assigned as EIPs. After an IP address is assigned as an EIP from an IP address pool, you are no longer charged an EIP configuration fee. Unit price of public IP retention fee: USD 0.007/hour/IP address. If you delete a CIDR block and add a new CIDR block, you are charged for each IP address in the new CIDR block. You are charged only once for CIDR blocks that are repeatedly added within one hour. If the CIDR block belongs to an on-premises network, you are not charged for the CIDR block.
Billing cycles and bill generation time	Hourly If the usage duration is less than 1 hour within a billing cycle, it is rounded up to 1 hour. A bill is typically issued within 1 hour after the current billing cycle ends. The actual time when bills are generated is determined by the system.
Overdue payments	Overdue payments If an IP address pool has an overdue payment, you are notified by email. The IP address can provide services within 15 days after the payment becomes overdue. If the payment is not completed within 15 days after the payment becomes overdue, the IP address pool is suspended. In this case, you can only delete the IP address pool. If the payment is not completed within 15 days after the IP address pool is suspended, CIDR blocks of the IP address pool and EIPs allocated from the pool are automatically deleted. You are notified by email one day before the CIDR blocks are deleted. Related data and configurations cannot be restored after the CIDR blocks are deleted. Renewal and top-ups If an IP address pool has an overdue payment, top up your account. If you top up your account within 15 days after the payment becomes overdue, your service is not suspended. If you top up your account within 30 days after the overdue payment occurs, and the CIDR blocks are not released, the overdue payment is automatically completed. Then, the IP address pool immediately resumes services.